Triple Date
by kikitheslayer
Summary: Carmilla/Night Vale crossover. Hollstein, LaFerry, and Cecilos go out for dinner on Christmas. Includes LaFerry angst. Minor LaFlashdrive.


Laura walked down the hall towards her dorm. She crossed her arms and muttered exasperatedly to herself, "Carmilla had better be ready by now…"

She opened the door and stopped in her tracks. "What the-!" she almost screamed. "Carmilla?!"

The...thing on her bed slowly morphed into a person. She stretched. "What is it, creampuff?"

Laura's mouth hung open. "Carm- Were you just- What was that?!"

Carmilla rolled her eyes. "Darling, are you still not over the whole "giant black cat" thing?"

"_That _was not a cat."

Carmilla stood up. "Not to you maybe…" she laughed.

Laura pouted. "Come on, Carm, we're gonna be late! Why aren't you dressed yet?"

"I am! Speaking of, what _are _you wearing?"

Laura looked down at the too-big red sweater, adorned with a felt christmas tree. "Perry made it for me. Just because you won't wear yours…"

"Actually I was referring to the santa hat."

She gave Carm a playful shove. "Just get dressed. It was very nice of LaF's friends to invite us out."

Carmilla started going through her closet. "You know, I'm sure we could have even more fun at home…"

Laura crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "You be good and maybe we still will."

Carmilla took a breath. "I'll wear my red pants then?"

"Oh, missy, I'd say it's a special occasion. Sacrifices should be made. Sweater."

"Oh, come on, Molly Weasley isn't going to care."

Laura cocked her head.

"Fine," sighed Carmilla. "And they say I'm evil…"

A few minutes later the two were walking hand-in-hand down the snowy sidewalk. Carmilla was wearing a matching sweater, also red, with a picture of a black cat sleeping in front of a fireplace.

"So, what did you say Science Ginger's friends' names were?" asked Carmilla as they walked below a row of shady trees.

"Cecil and Carlos," replied Laura. "Apparently they're from a town called Night Vale. LaF knows Carlos because-"

"Night Vale?" interrupted Carmilla. "This should be interesting."

"You've heard of it?"

"I spent a week there in 1998. Very vampire-friendly. Well, at least, most of the restaurants served blood. Of course when I left it was 1999…"

"Here we are!" cried Laura, stopping in front of a bright Italian restaurant.

They walked inside and spotted Perry waving at them from a round table. They scooted into the bench seats. "Hey!" smiled Laura at Perry and LaF, pulling off her damp coat. She extended a hand to Carlos and Cecil in turn. "You must be LaFontaine's friends!"

"Laura," said Cecil. "Lovely to meet you!"

Carmilla waved.

"So," said LaF. "Carlos and I are working on an experiment together..."

"We are studying the genetic makeup of the mushrooms LaF said appeared a few months ago," explained Carlos. "Very scientifically interesting."

LaF grinned. "Carlos here is great with science. He really gets all the equipment and procedure stuff."

"Oh, thank you, but you're great, too! In fact, I don't think I've ever had _this many _fires in one experiment before! And I could tell you some stories."

"Carlos has started some very scientific fires," said Cecil.

The waitress came and they ordered.

"So," began Laura. "Cecil, you work in radio, right? What's that like?"

"Well, it's very rewarding. Getting to deliver important and government-approved news."

Carmilla looked up. "You're Cecil Palmer, right?" she asked.

"That's correct," he answered, surprised.

"I thought so. I spent some time in Night Vale."

"Oh, you did?!" he asked excitedly. "What did you think?"

"Nice town," she said. "Have you chased out the… weird, creepy octupi that seemed to be running things?"

Cecil laughed. "We got rid of those years ago! You should see the weird, creepy things that are in charge now."

Perry gulped. "Um, who wants more cider? LaFontaine?"

They passed her their glass. "Sure, Perr, thanks."

Perry filled it and looked around. "Oh, Carmilla! I thought you hated that sweater…?"

Laura tossed a warning glance at her.

"No, it's… great. Thanks, Perry."

"Perry," began Carlos. She stopped like a deer in headlights. "...LaFontaine tells me you're studying literature?"

She let a breathe of relief. "Yes," she nodded.  
"How is that going?" asked Cecil.

"Well," she smiled. "It's going very well."

"You're very brave," said Cecil gravely.

"Excuse me?"

The waitress came and delivered their food. "Thank you," said Perry, turning quickly away from the others and accepting her ravioli.

Carmilla, who had ordered seafood spaghetti, leaned across the table and asked, "So, what made you two end up here in Austria?"

"Well," answered Cecil, "Carlos had recently been trapped in a bizarre desert otherworld for quite some time. After he found his way back, we wanted to spend some time together. We started walking and…" He shrugged.

"Isn't Night Vale in America?" asked Carmilla.

He shrugged again.

LaF's mouth fell open. "So, you guys didn't even take a car or anything?"

"Nope."

"That… is so cool. Would it be weird if I asked to do some experiments? Just on you and…"

Perry placed a hand on their arm. "LaF, didn't we have a talk about human subjects after the last…"

"Fine," sighed LaF. "You turn one girl's hair purple…"

"Purple and orange, dear. It looked horrible."

"Um, Carlos," said Laura. "Desert otherworld. That sounds interesting."

"Oh," he replied. "It was _very _scientifically interesting.

Cecil smiled. "Carlos was stuck there after he helped save Night Vale. He's a hero."

"Well, Carmilla here is kind of a hero, too. She, um, jumped into a portal after a crazy, evil vampire. I thought she died…" She smiled nervously.

"O-kay…" said Carmilla. "We're done. LaF, how's J.P. doing?"

"He's great," they grinned. "I'm finally redesigning his interface, which is cool." To Cecil, they said, "J.P. is a sentient USB drive from the eighteen hundreds. ...And he's kinda my boyfriend."

Perry took a sip of her drink and asked quickly, "What's the weather normally like in Night Vale?"

"Well," answered Cecil, "the weather…"

After the music stopped playing, Laura turned to Perry and asked, "Uh, Perry, Danny wanted me to ask about maybe your ideas for the Summer Society's competition after-party? As far as I can tell they want it to be safe, but also to show up any party the Zetas have ever thrown."

"Really? I thought maybe there was some… I mean, Kirsch and Danny seemed almost...like, well, like they didn't hate each other."

Carmilla snorted. "The day fratboy and amazon put down their weapons is the day this whole school goes up in flames. For good this time."

The others laughed. "Well," said Perry. "I'll head over there tomorrow."

Cecil asked a question next, saying, "So, Laura, I've heard that you had quite a year. And you filmed it all?"

"As much as I could," she replied. "A lot of the action took place in our dorm. But I mean, I like having documents of things. And it really helped to reach so many people."

"Oh, I feel the same way. Reaching people is very important."

"Yes!" she smiled. "Of course, when I first came to Silas I had no idea what was going to happen. I just saw that something weird was happening and I wanted to get to the bottom of it."

Cecil paused and stared at her. "That... is so neat."

That night, having finished their meal and conversation, ranging from mysterious glowing clouds to vampires to muffin recipes, the three pairs left, stepping onto a street lit by stars reflecting off of the softly falling snow.

Cecil grabbed Carlos' hand on the way out of the restaurant. "Tonight was a little bit weird," he said.

Carlos nodded in agreement. "Can you believe they didn't know proper vulture swarm evacuation protocol?"

Cecil shook his head. "Well, there may have been some gaps in their knowledge, but they seemed like nice people."

"I meant what I said. LaFontaine has great potential in the field."

"Well, no one is as great at science as you."  
Carlos smiled. "Stop…"

Cecil put an arm around Carlos. "Well, soon we'll be back in Night Vale and you'll have even more to study."

Carlos grinned. "But in the meantime, the desert's not the only place things can get studied..."

Carmilla and Laura walked in the opposite direction, home to Silas, their breath turning white.

"Aren't you cold?" asked Laura, shivering.

"Vampire, remember?" said Carmilla, pulling Laura closer.

Laura let herself fall into beat against her chest. "Tonight ended pretty fun," she said sleepily.

Carmilla smirked. "I think I remember you saying something about home being pretty fun..."

Suddenly awake, Laura stood and giggled, "I believe I did say something to that effect, yes." She pulled Carmilla under a streetlight and grabbed her collar. She smirked and tugged her into a snowy kiss. No mistletoe required.

Meanwhile, Perry and LaFontaine took the long way home.

"Well," said Perry, "That was an interesting dinner."

Lafontaine said nothing. After a long pause they ran a hand through their hair and said, "Perry… Carlos and Cecil are going home in a couple months and… and I'm kinda thinking of going with them."

Perry stopped in her tracks. "Really?" she said, her mouth open. "But... what about… J.P.?"

"Well, I mean, he'd come, too…" they said, stopping in front of her and pushing their hands deep in their pockets.

"LaFontaine," said Perry. "You cannot be serious, can you? You listened to all of their stories…"

"Exactly, Perr. It sounds so interesting, like there's so much to study and explore."

"There are things to study and explore _here_, in the real world," she said, almost pleading.

LaF turned and kicked some snow with the toe of their boot. "Well, they're not leaving for a while anyway, and I need to graduate first. We can… talk about it later."

Perry said nothing and the two walked back to the college.

LaF took her hand. "Happy holidays, Perr."

Perry sighed. "Happy holidays, LaFontaine."


End file.
